I'm usually limited to one cup of coffee per day as the acid kills my stomach. The coffee shop that I go to uses good beans (Stumptown Coffee). However, sometimes I just want to have another cup, especially as the weather gets nicer and working on the patio with a cigar becomes more and more an option (I work from home).

Anyway, I occasionally look around at cold brew systems and wonder if they are all that or just a gimmick. I'm back to trying to figure that out again this year, so I thought I would ask here, since the coffee knowledge is high quality.

Also, I was wondering about the Hourglass Cold-Brew Coffee Maker, which seems to get okay reviews and isn't an arm and a leg.

Cold brew might do the trick for you. Give it a try by just doing a 4 to 1 ratio in a big jar to put in the fridge for 18-24hrs then pour through a coffee filter or two. I never have picked up one of the toddy's or the ronco since it just never seemed needed.

Here's the method to the madness...despite what the instructions for the Toddy say to do, just do this:

After putting in plug/filter:
1) Pour in 4 cups water
2) Put in 4 cups of course grind coffee
3) Put in 3 more cups of water
4) Do not mix/stir, but gently fold in the dry grounds in the water until it's all soaking
5) Approximately 12 hours later, pull the plug and filter into the decanter
6) Determine the dilution you like best-I think the manual says a 3:1 or 4:1 wateroffee concentrate, but you need to determine what works best for your taste.

OR you could use the Brad Method. Dump 1/2 a pound of coffee into a half gallon Rubbermaid Tea pitcher.
This should fill the pitcher up 1/4 of the way. Nearly fill the pitcher with water and stir to wet all the grounds.
Let that $hi+ sit on the counter til sometime the next day or when you want coffee. Pour the whole mix
through a kitchen strainer to strain out the grounds, into a large jar or tupper ware container. Then filter
that again through a coffee filter rubber banded to another container, or maybe another filter in your strainer.
If that clogs up, you can change the filter or give it a stir with a spoon to open up some clogged spots.
Pour that crap into a jar and put it in the fridge. For individual servings, fill a cup with 1/3 goop and one third
water or whatever concentration you can stand, microwave and drink your delicious coffee.

Methodology aside, I never thought of doing this til I read it yesterday on the forum,
and immediately bought the cheapest coffee I could find to try it. It worked and several
people here are hooked on it now. They were chained to that drip pot, and now they
look in the fridge for the plastic bottle of concentrate. If it's not there, they bi-och at
me for being lazy then drip themselves a pot the old way out of spite. What a great way
to make coffee.